No furlough (three-day weekend) for the IRS

Stop the presses! The Internal Revenue Service is canceling the furlough day that was scheduled Monday. Offices will be open as usual, and IRS employees will be paid for the day, according to the agency.

The IRS said in a statement that it is bagging the furlough day “due to its successful ongoing efforts to cut costs.” The reason for the furloughs was the federal sequester.

That means all toll-free services, including the Taxpayer Advocate Service, will be on their regular Monday schedule, as will most of the agency’s taxpayer assistance centers nationwide. Taxpayers can check IRS.gov for days of service, hours and services offered at the location they plan to visit. A variety of tools and services are available online or by phone, such as the withholding calculator, interactive tax assistant and Tele-Tax.

Monday would have been the fourth furlough day since May. Employees were furloughed May 24, June 14 and July 5 due to sequestration. The agency is considering Aug. 30 as a furlough day, but a final decision hasn’t been made. The IRS previously said that it might schedule one or two more furlough days, beyond Aug. 30.

Cara Matthews is a member of The Journal News' Tax Team. She has worked as an Albany correspondent and she covered Putnam County government and politics. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them.